One of the greatest advantages associated with running your website on WordPress is the convenience of tweaking the theme in your own unique way. By performing some simple tweaks to your CSS stylesheet, you can easily come up with a brand new look and feel for your WordPress powered blog/website.
Despite the amazingly widespread use of WordPress, there is a good majority of users which is still committing some simple mistakes while writing the CSS for their WordPress themes. In today’s post, I’ll walk you through some common CSS writing blunders which are committed even by professional developers and tend to ruin a wide collection of WordPress theme customization projects.
Common Mistakes While Writing CSS for WordPress themes
Now, let’s look at the 7 common errors made by WordPress developers while customizing WP Theme via writing/modifying the CSS:
1. Working on an inappropriate template module
There are many WordPress developers who end up making changes in the comments.php file instead of the comments-popup.php file. In other words, they tend to work on an wrong template module, thereby messing up everything as a whole. A simple solution to this problem is to double-check the modular section that you’re expected to working on all through the WordPress theme customization venture.
2. Missing out on the correct spellings
As one of the most common mistakes committed while writing the CSS, missing out on the correct spelling has been the sole reason behind the failure of a majority of WordPress theme moderation projects. For instance, developers often tend to enter the margin as “9pc” instead of “9px”. Fortunately, there is CSS Validator which catches such spelling errors and advises you to use the correct spelling.
3. Ignoring the creation of a proper backup
Even after adhering to all the standards of modifying the WordPress theme’s stylesheet, there are situations when committing some silly mistakes can make you lose all your important data. It is under such a scenario that the significance of having a backup is realized. You must ensure to create a proper and complete backup of all your CSS files. Doing this will aid you in recovering all the lost data under an adverse situation.
4. Forgetting to abide by the CSS Ground rules
Even as an experienced WordPress theme customization expert, you may tend to forget about following the CSS ground rules. One of the most commonly forgotten CSS ground rule is that every selector must be determined as an ID or CLASS excluding the HTML tag. Additionally, it is vital to define the selector in the below format:
selector { property: value; property: value; }
Here, it must be ensured that everything including braces, colon and semi-colon must be included within the CSS selectors. Missing out even a single detail would make the CSS work improperly. Thankfully, here as well, the CSS Validators can allow you to resolve this issue by prompting you about the missed out details.
5. Code Redundancy
The term ‘redundancy’ refers to writing repetitive code in your CSS. This is a common mistake which leads to wastage of the developer’s time and efforts.
6. Assigning multiple references to a single selector
Most of WordPress developers are in the habit of assigning multiple references to a single selector. Doing this can lead to creation of information conflicts simply because these multiple selectors will then start loading simultaneously, making you confused about the one you must pick for achieving the desired results. For instance, if you are working with a specific set of selectors, where you’ve a h2 heading and no changes are being reflected, then it is advised to simply go through the style sheet for checking whether the selector comes with any reference or not.
7. Being unaware about the accurate way of placing the files
In order to tweak the CSS for your WordPress theme, it is quite essential for you to learn the accurate way of placing the files and recognizing the one that you should be working with. You must know that all the CSS files are placed in style.css file which is available within the WordPress theme folder. Additionally, you must also be aware that HTML code is being placed in the index.php file with all the PHP Files being stored inside the WordPress theme folder.
Conclusion
Learning about all the aforementioned CSS writing mistakes beforehand will let you delve into the WordPress theme customization project with a whole new level of zest. So, get going now and quickly start modifying your WordPress themes while staying at bay from the above explained blunders.